bitter goat hikes

‘neither migrant nor exile… a nomad’

nomadic cartographies need to be redrafted constantly; as such they are structurally opposed to fixity and therefore to rapacious appropriation. The nomad has a sharpened sense of territory but no possessiveness about it […] nomadism, therefore, is not fluidity without borders but rather an acute awareness of the nonfixity of boundaries.

– Rosi Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory

i am a distance hiker; recovering academic; collector of stories.

amma calls me amiththan.

on trails i walk as swami bittergoat. trail names are a wonderful, quirky aspect of the distance hiking culture. we earn our names or name ourselves. mine was both: i named myself bittergoat; a hiker annointed me swami. whether our names stick is dependent on so many factors and you can read about this colourful yet beloved tradition in my trail notes from the appalachian trail.

before i was afoot on the appalachian trail i wanted the name bGoAT: brown Guy on Appalachian Trail. i became bittergoat and a swami much later. that there is such little diversity in many aspects of outdoor recreation and adventure sports in the north american context is an open secret. it sucks.

bitter goat hikes project is a personal struggle for diversifying outdoors: places, faces, histories, narratives.

my name amiththan—yes, with a double th. i write, collect stories, and sometimes go for very long walks. on these walks tend to read and eat. alot. i also test gear, ideas and, of course, myself

#embracethesuck #changethestory

One never reaches home, she said. But wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world feels like home for a time.